A global battery recall is underway for more than 100,000 HP laptops. Is your HP laptop battery affected? Here’s how to find out whether you need an HP laptop battery replacement and what to do next. See all laptop reviews.

HP has been recalling affected laptop batteries following fire-safety fears since June 2016. Unfortunately, the problem goes further than it originally thought, which means you should check your laptop battery now even if you had done so previously.

Note that HP is not recalling the laptops themselves, merely the batteries. HP has said it will provide a replacement battery for each verified, affected battery, at no cost to you. HP isn’t demanding that batteries are returned before new ones are sent out, which should speed up the process, and in the meantime the laptop will be usable without its battery installed while connected to mains power.

If you’ve bought or received a replacement HP, Compaq, HP ProBook, HP ENVY, Compaq Presario or HP Pavilion laptop between March 2013 and October 2016, it might be affected. See below for how to check whether your laptop battery has been recalled.

How to check whether your HP laptop battery has been recalled

1. The easiest way to check whether you HP laptop is affected is to download and run the HP Battery Program Validation Utility. If for whatever reason this doesn’t work for you, see option 2.

2. You can also manually check your laptop battery by powering down and disconnecting the battery, then removing the battery and jotting down its barcode. Affected models include those starting with 6BZLU, 6CGFK, 6CGFQ, 6CZMB, 6DEMA, 6DEMH, 6DGAL or 6EBVA.

You will also need the laptop’s serial number, which may be printed on the bottom of the laptop. If it isn’t, open System information by pressing Fn and Escape. Alternatively, open the Command Prompt (type cmd in the Start menu or Taskbar search box, depending on the version of Windows you are running) and type wmic bios get SerialNumber, or wmic bios get serialnumber.